45: The Darkness of IGNORE-ance, The Light of Service

CHAPTER 10, TEXT 11: To show [the devotees] special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.

People on the path of bhakti yoga focus on cultivating love and devotion, but this focus on love can sometimes be seen as a weakness. 

What about logic? 

What about philosophy? 

What about truth in all of its clear and grounded glory? 

Huh?

Prabhupad writes that sometimes "philosophers criticize the devotees because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists." I can almost hear the philosophers scoff at bhakti yogis: Your focus on "love" makes you naive and weak with sentimentality, you fools!  

Prabhupad refutes this idea by mentioning that there are many Vaishnava scholars of bhakti who illuminate the scripture with deep clarity and logic as well as devotion. 

That said, still, devotion is not a matter of philosophy or logic. Love knows no bounds. The source of all knowledge is God, and ultimately, God is dwelling in our hearts. So Prabhupad writes, "[E]ven if a devotee does not take advantage of [Vaishnava scholar] literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Kṛṣṇa Himself within his heart." God is the source of all knowledge, all philosophy, all logic, all truth, and lucky us - he dwells right within our own hearts as Paramatma. If the Lord so desires, he can turn on the lamp of truth and illuminate our hearts, which are so shrouded with ignorance. 

But what does it take for Paramatma to turn on that lamp? 

Prabhupad writes that "The only qualification is that one carry out devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Loving service to Krishna is what illuminates the heart. No amount of studying can flood our hearts with the light of understanding, only loving service. In fact, "it is not possible to understand Him or to achieve Him simply by making a mental effort. Man can go on speculating for several millions of years, and if he is not devoted, if he is not a lover of the Supreme Truth, he will never understand Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Truth." I love how Prabhupad emphasizes that man could speculate for millions of years and never know God. After all, the lamp of knowledge destroys ignorance, and what is ignorance? 

I once heard ignorance defined as IGNORE-ance. To what degree am I ignoring the truth, ignoring God? The truth and God is right there. Nevertheless, for so many reasons I ignore Him, and this creates so much darkness in my own heart and in the world. The philosopher who is speculating about God for millennia could actually be coldly ignoring God. 

If I would just stop ignoring God and turn to Him within my own heart and offer my love and attention, then the light of truth and knowledge can come flooding back. No speculation for millions of years required. 

"The pure devotee always has Kṛṣṇa within his heart; and with the presence of Kṛṣṇa, who is just like the sun, the darkness of ignorance is at once dissipated."

Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/10/11/

27: From Enemy to Friend

CHAPTER 6, TEXT 6: For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

Even in America, Land of the Free, everyone has a boss.

That boss may be my manager. Or professor. My parents. Maybe my husband, or wife. Maybe my boss is simply time, which tells me when to wake up and go to sleep. Or maybe my boss is my stomach, because I need to eat. There will always be someone "superior" giving me orders, whether I like it or not.

Prabhupad writes, "The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior." So in this sense, there is no getting around having a boss and carrying out the orders of that boss - it is our very nature to serve.

Freedom does not mean having no boss and no one to answer to.

Freedom means I get to choose my boss.

Have you ever had a bad boss? I have. I remember dreading waking up in the morning because I had to go to work. No matter that I liked my coworkers and even the work itself. The negative, doubtful, nitpicky, over-controlling, and discouraging attitude of my boss cast a shadow over my work and life. But I was bound to serve my superior, whether I liked him/her or not.

In this analogy, the mind is not the highest boss, like the CEO or company owner, but it's the manager. The function of the mind is to accept and reject.

What do I like? What do I dislike?

What comes to me  is the image of a child who rejects broccoli with screams of disgust and accepts ice cream with screams of delight.

That's the mind.

That's our manager.

Great.

In this verse, Krishna says that the mind can be either the greatest friend or the greatest enemy, and without self-control the mind is the greatest enemy: "One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled." I need to become the boss of my mind, or my mind will take over my life and spoil it.

The good news is that my mind is only the manager, not the CEO.

The CEO is the intelligence. This means that my intelligence is capable of controlling my mind. I need to use my intelligence to control my impulses to accept and reject. Ultimately, though, "As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc." This is like living with a bad boss, day in and day out, a manager who is doubtful, nitpicky, temperamental, and negative. Living under the tyranny of lust, anger, hatred, and more is a life of hell.

The greatest choice to make in order to transform the mind from an enemy to a friend is to control it - to learn self-control, self-discipline, and self-knowledge. This is what it means to conquer the mind. A powerful and practical way to ways to cultivate self-discipline is to delay gratification. Viktor Frankl writes, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." This is about expanding our free will and our ability to control our choices and ultimately our minds.

Delay, don't deny.

Delay the ice cream.

Delay the new clothes.

Delay the new gadget.

Delay the hurtful words.

Just the process of delaying is an act of self-control. We increase the size of that space between stimulus and response. And in the process of delaying, in that window of time, I can use my intelligence to accept what is healthy for me (the "broccoli") and reject what is unhealthy for me (the "ice cream").

Cultivating self-control makes the mind one's friend. Interestingly, the word "friend" comes from "Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’, shared by free" (britannica.com). To love is the root of both friend and free - which is the underlying message of this verse by Krishna. Our mind is our friend when we are free, and freedom is the very core of what it means to love.

We cannot love if we are not free.

So ultimately, if we conquer our minds, this does not mean that we are "free" of any superior. Our intelligence is the CEO of our company, but there's still the company owner - and the owner is Paramatma - the Lord in our heart.

Our owner is quiet, unobtrusive. He never raises his voice, so in the racket that our mind gives when it's our enemy, it's hard to hear him. But when we quiet down and control the mind, we can hear the Supersoul. He knows what's best. In this regard, "When the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā." If I can learn to control my mind, make it my friend, I can hear the quiet, beautiful voice of the Lord in my heart. Carrying out the orders of such a superior can only lead to peace, love, and true freedom. He is my truest friend.

Full purport for Chapter 6, Text 6 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/6/

25: Window to the Soul

CHAPTER 5, TEXT 18: The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].

The eyes are the windows to the soul.

Then with our eyes and with our own soul, let's look into the eyes of those beings who Krishna mentions in this verse (for  a dog-eater I put a picture of a criminal, which is a modern equivalent of an outcaste).

gentle brahmana

cow

dog

elephant

outcaste

Regardless of body, the soul shines forth. Go ahead, look again at the criminal, look past the tattoos and into his eyes - you can see, the soul is there.

To acknowledge the spirit soul that resides within all beings - not only human beings - is the foundation of any true knowledge.

America's founding credo is: "All men are created equal." Krishna is emphasizing, though, that that equality is based upon the equality of the soul, not the body.

So this would include that all men and women are created equal.

All races are created equal.

The eyes.

The eyes have it.

But other living beings also have eyes. Prabhupad writes: "A Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not make any distinction between species or castes [social standing]." So if we do not make a distinction between species, how about dogs? Dogs are mentioned in this verse as having a soul. Dogs are capable of love and affection, and any dog lover would agree most emphatically with Krishna that yes, dogs have souls.

So any cat lover (my sister included) would make the same proclamation: cats have souls.

So then what about OTHER animals??

To acknowledge the soul within all living beings is revolutionary consciousness.

Prabhupad writes: "The brāhmaṇa and the outcaste may be different from the social point of view, or a dog, a cow and an elephant may be different from the point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist." Of course there are material differences between all of the pictured living beings in this post - these pictures offer barely give a glimpse into the diversity of bodies of living beings on this planet. But if we scroll through and really take time to look into their eyes, we can feel something tingle in our mind and our soul, a sense of recognition: a soul is here.

Even in a fish.

On the deepest level, those differences of body become truly become meaningless.

In fact, "The bodies are material productions of different modes of material nature, but the soul and the Supersoul within the body are of the same spiritual quality." At the core, we are all eternal spirit souls who have a relationship with God and each other. In this sense, our equality "is due to [our] relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramātmā, is present in everyone’s heart." This means that within the heart of each and every living being - from the President of the United States to the goldfish - God is there, witnessing every action and accompanying us at every moment.

If we can imbibe this "true knowledge" and disregard the social differences and the differences of species, how should we behave towards other living beings?

The first word that comes to me is respect.

For differences of species, maybe I do not give dogs and turtles the right to vote, or make a spider my companion, but if God is within every living being, surely I can offer respect. I can respect the gift of life within every living being and not take it away for my pleasure or convenience. That's a start.

For living beings with social differences, such as human beings, sometimes this is the hardest. I get caught up in the differences - the eye color, the hair color, the face shape, the body shape, the culture, the language, the dress, etc. Compared to how I may sympathize with and respect a sweet dog, it may be almost easier to categorize a human of a different race and culture as "other" and thus "bad" or "inferior" and refuse to offer my respect. So on the basis of recognizing and respecting another's soul and not just their body is the way that a learned transcendentalist behaves.

Ultimately, "the Lord is equally kind to everyone because He treats every living being as a friend yet maintains Himself as Paramātmā regardless of the circumstances of the living entities." At the core, the Lord is a friend to all. He treats everyone equally, regardless of social standing or species. We are all spirit souls.

True knowledge means to see with this equal vision. I've touched on living beings with eyes in this blog post, but there are billions of living beings that do not have discernible or sympathetic eyes, such as sea sponges and trees. But let's start with eyes. Let's look into the window of another being's soul, let's look into their eyes, and acknowledge that the soul is there, God is there.

True wisdom begins there.

Full purport for Chapter 5, Text 18 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/5/18/